Occupational Differences
by Uncommon-Aura
Summary: An FBI Special Agent and a private detective discuss the Cooper gang case, and how the hell one of their childhood friends got caught up with the infamous thief. Some parts of the case just weren't adding up, from their perspective... (Self-Insert/OCs. Drabble in a series. Rated T. Complete)


What's this? A drabble set between Sly2 and 3? Why yes, yes it is! And there's other OCs in it? Yes, indeed. I've decided to AU two of my OCs into the Cooperverse, because I think it'll be fun. I guess this is kinda their introduction?

* * *

"Hard to believe that old friends can end up doing such different things with their lives, huh?"

FBI Special Agent Jay Alexander scoffed at that, and glanced up from the file he was reading to give the large fruit bat next to him a _look_. "You're talking like she decided to become a radical conservationist and chain herself to trees, or something. This is different, and you know it,"

"Yeah, maybe," drawled the brown fruit bat, known as Connor Schillz; Private Detective. "But don't you think it's kinda funny how we ended up doing the exact opposite of her?"

Jay sighed and rolled his eyes. "Okay, yeah, I guess it is kinda... Ironic. But she's a criminal, Connor. She's chosen to run with Sly Cooper, of all people..."

"You're wondering why, aren't you?" asked Connor, raising an eyebrow and giving Jay a coy look.

"Yeah, I am," replied Jay, eyes still glued to the Interpol files he'd been able to pull. "She just. Never struck me as the kind of person who'd become a criminal... She was always so sweet. Really awkward, but sweet. Always wanted to do the right thing... How did someone like her get involved with Sly Cooper?"

Connor hummed. "Maybe she didn't want to? Maybe he forced her?"

Jay shook his head, flipped to a specific page of the file he had, and began reading from it. "'At an unknown temple deep in the Indian Jungle, Constable Neyla, the Contessa, and Inspector Carmelita Fox attempted to apprehend Sly Cooper, his gang, and the illegal spice dealer known as Rajan. Nyx Blythe was found at the scene, trying to help Cooper escape. When faced with Interpol forces, she shoved Cooper in the proposed direction of their safehouse, and proceeded to tackle Constable Neyla. They grappled for several minutes, before other Interpol Agents arrived to subdue Blythe. Inspector Fox did not give chase when Cooper ran, and thus Cooper was able to escape. Upon being questioned, Blythe did not object to the charges pressed against her, and openly admitted to helping the Cooper gang.' Does that sound like they forced her?"

Connor inhaled as he tried to think of something to say, then exhaled loudly. "...No..."

"Whatever happened in those two months she was missing... She decided to try a life of crime, and apparently she likes it..." Jay said, turning back to the page he'd previously been reading. "And apparently she's gotten pretty devious..."

Connor leaned over to see what the page said. "'Blythe and Murray pried open the storm grate in Blythe's cell, which allowed Blythe to exit the building and get into the main prison compound. She was likely looking for a way to spring her partner, but was caught when the security alarms in the evidence lockup were triggered by Cooper, as he broke in to steal his family cane. Blythe was subdued by Contessa's guards, but was rescued by Cooper before she could be returned to her cell.' ...Damn, okay... So they're definitely partners..."

Jay sighed. "I know I shouldn't get emotionally involved in this, I mean - I'm not even on the case, but. She was our friend. I should care, right?"

Connor looped an arm around Jay's shoulders and sighed quietly. "Yeah, I think we should care. She'd care if it were us making bad life choices, right?"

Jay gave a short laugh. "I like to think she would. She always cared about everyone, even people she didn't know,"

"She was always a bleeding heart, wasn't she?" Connor asked, completely rhetorically.

"That she was. Makes me wonder how she got into all this. She just. Doesn't fit the profile of a criminal. She's too kind, too soft," Jay mumbled.

Connor hummed softly. "...What else does her file say?"

Jay sighed, turned back to the beginning of Nyx's file, and began paraphrasing the information. "She went missing in late January, disappearing from her Paris apartment without a trace. Sly Cooper was in town at the time, and days later the nightclub owned by Dimitri Lousteau was robbed by him, and Lousteau was apprehended by Inspector Fox... Nyx wasn't seen on anyone's radar for the next two months, after which she appeared in India with Cooper, and was arrested... After breaking all Cooper gang members out of Contessa's prison, they dropped off the radar for another four weeks. But then they showed up again, still in Prague,"

"They didn't leave after springing their gang? What for?" Connor asked. He knew the Cooper repertoire, they tended to entirely leave a country after pulling a heist...

"They stayed to track down Contessa, according to this file. By now, Interpol had figured out that Cooper was after the Clockwerk parts that had been stolen by the Klaww gang from the museum in Cairo. You remember that?"

Connor sighed heavily. "Yeah, they almost fired you for that one..."

Jay raised his eyebrows to say 'Indeed' and then continued. "Every person that Cooper went after had pieces of the Clockwerk body, and all the pieces went missing after he robbed their owners. Which brings us back to Contessa and Prague. Constable Neyla had started suspecting things of Contessa, and was casing her castle. So was Cooper. He broke into Contessa's castle - Freeing Inspector Carmelita Fox in the process - And stole the Clockwerk eyes from her. As it would turn out, she was a member of the Klaww gang,"

"I heard about that from one of my partners. Contessa was regarded as the most successful and respected prison warden out there. She'd reformed so many people... I was shocked to hear that she'd been involved in anything illegal. Didn't know that Cooper was involved, though..." Connor mumbled.

"That's because Constable Neyla took all the credit for busting her. She tried to take the Clockwerk eyes, too, but that's where Nyx showed up again. She reportedly tackled the Constable - Again - And took one of the eyes from her. She likely fled the scene with it, after Neyla was dispatched by Contessa, who was then beaten to a pulp by Cooper," said Jay. "By the time Neyla's backup arrived, the Cooper gang was gone,"

Connor twisted his lips into something of a grimace as he thought this all over. "Do you think maybe Cooper promised Nyx something if she worked with him?"

Jay hummed as he thought about it. "But what would that be? What would Nyx need that only a criminal could give her? And what about stealing the Clockwerk parts was gonna get them that? Do you know who Clockwerk was?"

"Big crime lord, right? The mastermind behind the Fiendish Five...? Didn't Sly go after those guys a few years back? They took down Muggshot, didn't they? The crime boss in Utah?" Connor questioned.

Jay nodded. "That's not the whole picture, though. There's not much info on it, but Inspector Fox was able to give me some insight. Clockwerk and the Fiendish Five killed Sly's parents when he was eight. Resulted in him ending up in an orphanage, which is where he met his gang,"

"He was on a revenge mission when he took down the Fiendish Five, then?" Connor asked, having put that piece together pretty quick.

"Mhm. They stole his family book of secrets, and he went to get it back the minute he turned eighteen. He dumped Clockwerk into the Krack Karov volcano, but it didn't destroy the pieces, thus how they ended up in a Cairo museum," answered Jay.

Connor was quick to put the next two pieces together, too. "So Cooper went after the Clockwerk parts to officially kill him? End the man who murdered his family?"

Jay nodded. "That's the logical assumption. But how the hell does Nyx fit into that? Why would Cooper need her to help him? And what would he offer her in exchange that only he could give her? Did the Clockwerk parts have anything to do with either of those things?"

Connor was silent a moment as he thought it over. "Maybe she's in love with him? We all know he's a ladies man, loves to flirt. Maybe he charmed her into doing what he wanted?"

Jay scoffed, almost finding that actually funny. "Nyx? Be bribed into crime because she's in love with a guy? I doubt it, Connor, you know her,"

"It's been a while, Jay. People change," Connor said matter-of-factly. "We don't know who she could be anymore,"

"Yeah, but... It just doesn't feel right. Nyx would never let a man manipulate her into doing something under the name of love... It's not her style..." Jay sighed.

Connor hummed. He supposed Jay was right on that one... Nothing was exactly adding up, here. "What's the rest of her file say?"

"According to Inspector Fox - Who was still on the outs with Interpol, after being framed by Neyla back in India - Nyx was still traveling with Cooper when they robbed Jean Bison of his three Clockwerk parts in Canada. Cooper reportedly rescued her from the oncoming Interpol agents, and Inspector Fox says that Nyx was in the van with them," Jay explained. "She wasn't seen again until after Neyla joined herself to the Clockwerk frame, and was subsequently destroyed by Cooper and Inspector Fox. But she wasn't seen at the crash site of the self-named 'Clock-La',"

"Then where was she found that implies a tie to Cooper?" asked Connor.

"The nearest hospital," Jay replied. "Clock-La kidnapped Cooper's team, who were hiding in a battery aboard a blimp owned by Klaww gang mastermind Arpeggio. They were likely injured during the crash, which Cooper reportedly caused. The Cooper strategist, Bentley, was found checked into the same hospital, though they checked in separately, and Nyx claimed to have had amnesia. Hospital security tapes reveal that it was indeed her. She had a dislocated shoulder, and stayed in the hospital for only a few days, before Cooper broke her out,"

Connor sighed and ran his hands back through his hair. "Okay. So she's definitely in league with Cooper... No denying that..."

"But we still don't know why..." Jay mumbled, closing the file and tossing it onto the coffee table before them. "What does both Nyx and Cooper get out of an alliance?"

"Maybe she's picked up some skills we don't know about?" Connor proposed.

Jay hummed and bit his lip. "Her file doesn't mention any specific abilities that would be useful to a thief. In fact, it says that she clearly has no fighting experience, judging by the way she tackled Neyla. Remember, Connor, she was an artist. What good is an artist to a thief?"

Connor thought it over for a moment... "Forgeries, maybe?"

Jay was silent as he contemplated that idea... It made sense... Nyx was good with computer software, good at making things with it... It would make sense if she'd learned how to forge things with it. He wished that it didn't make sense, though... "Would she?"

"It makes sense," said Connor, shrugging. "The Cooper gang stayed completely off the radar when traveling. Maybe Nyx's learned to forge IDs and passports? That would make her useful,"

Jay sighed and thought about it a moment more, looking conflicted. "But would she, Connor? She just. Doesn't strike me as the kind of person who would do that... And if all she was doing was forging documents... Why follow them around the world? Why tackle an officer of the law? Twice?"

Connor raised a finger to pointedly wave it through the air. "Okay, you got me on that one, you're right. That doesn't make too much sense... In fact, none of this makes sense..."

"Yeah, it definitely doesn't..." Jay sighed, sounded dejected.

There was a moment of silence, before Connor spoke again. "Has Nyx been spotted again since the Clock-La incident?"

"No," Jay replied. "She's gone completely off the grid. Cooper, on the other hand, has been seen pulling small jobs here and there,"

"But Nyx hasn't been seen with him?" asked Connor.

"Nope. No trace of her anywhere. Her apartment is now vacant, and Interpol has no idea where she's moved to..." answered Jay with a sigh.

Connor hummed for probably the millionth time in that conversation. "So you think she's still with the Cooper gang?"

"Either that, or she's in hiding because she knows that she's now internationally wanted..." Jay replied. "But why would she do this? Risk everything and give up her entire life to pull one big job with Sly Cooper?"

Connor shook his head. "I don't have an answer for you, Jay... Maybe we should look into it some?"

Jay sighed in frustration. "I can't go digging into cases that aren't mine, Connor, you know that. Especially Interpol cases..."

"Yeah..." Connor said pointedly. "But maybe I can?"

"You really wanna go digging around the Cooper case? You might attract Inspector Fox's attention," Jay pointed out.

Connor shrugged. "I think I can handle her. I bet she wants answers just as much as we do, right?"

Jay bit his lip again as he thought about that. "I bet she does... Alright, fine. You wanna go poking around Interpol business, go ahead,"

Connor smirked and stood up from the couch in Jay's office. "I'll make sure it doesn't get back to you, okay?"

Jay snorted as his partner walked towards the door. "Yeah, sure. Thanks,"


End file.
